The Portland daily press., 1887-12-10

next bridge will be over the pleasant river
near Rrownyille. 1t will be OF wood. with
Zone large span: about 200 feet long. There
will he SIS feet of timber trestles for APP
proaches. At Norway Point, Schoodic
Lake, a large cut 1000 ieet long, and 4ofeet
bor, but is now completed. At Hardy Pond
150o feet of wood trestle is to be put in. At
Mattawamkeag wooden bridge gives access
TO the east bank Of the Penobscot.
These are the bridges and trestles which
main mains II to be- done and the cuts that are to be
made. they constitute the third of the entire
work that is vet undone. Ii the contractors
have good luck this winter the engineers
think that two or three months Of grading In
the spring will finish u up. By July, the
ought to be laid and ballasted into Green
vile. By autumn the road ought to he in
operation across the entire length of the
State.
The work that has been done is done in
the best manner. The surface of the grade
is very broad and smooth as a floor. There
are no grades over iifty-three feet in a mile,
no curves over six degrees. From Holeb-
town on the west TO Greenyille on Lake
Moosehead, there is descent of two hun
dred and twenty feet tSa ana MdIo from Greenylie
other descent of eight hundred feet From
west to east the Canadian Pacific in Maine
descends over a thousand feet through the
woods and by the lakes and streams in easy
grades and gentle curves. Allng the entire
length of more than hundred miles there
is no city. and but one or twolof the smallest
villages: but there is great variety of the
widest and finest forest scenery in Maine.
The difficulties of the contractors make 1t
impossible to pay the wages that have been
paid all summer, especially since the shorter
days of winter make the ansount of service
rendered less. A dollar r,ld half day,
with board at two iollars and half week
has been the prevailing wages all summer
for ten hours of w0Ek day. The hours OF
work are now nine and the pay has been re-
duced to dollar and a quarter. THIS change
has just been announced, and there is much
grimbling. and many Of the men are leaving
The Italians, or most OF them, left some
time ago. The cold was getting to be too
much for them also. Most Of the men who
re main now are Irish, Canadian French,
men from the Provinces, especially "P. K.
LIS" as Prince Edward Islanders. are called
in this region, Swedes, Norwegians, Fins,
and a few State of Maine Yankees. But the
State of Maine Yankees, the contractors say,
will do nothing but drive teams. They won't
dig, probably because they know they can
get better work in other parts Of the State.
OF the Italian workmen, there prevails
very poor opinion in this region. They
would board themselves and they would not
go to the expense of getting proper food. Al
ltT his DOdIu anu expenses McIc ucuuCtcuf u
Yankee or any other white man," as they
call every one but an Italian here, would
draw about $22 month; the Italians would
draw about $50 a month each clear, and the
work they did was not so much per man as
the work done by other laborers. At pres
ent there are not many laborers on the works
but large numbers are being hired in New
York. Mckenzie, Mann & Co.. will have on
their "a miles of.construction about 1900 men
this winter. Other contractors will have
enough more probably, to bring the total
number up to 2300. These will push the
work this winter.
Mckenzie, Mann & Co.. who have over 80
miles of the distance, have disbursed for la
Dor and supplies during the six months the
work has been going on, about 100000
month. On the whole line, the disburse-
ments have been about two hundred and fif-
ty or three hundred thousand dollars each
month. A large part of this has gone for la
bor Many of the Italians have taken quite
large sums away with them. Some of the
others have spent much of their money in
the pleasures of Bangor.